John and Penny Welch and their dog Joy move some of their belongings back into their Ocean Avenue home in Seaside Park. / bob bielk/staff photographer

John and Penny Welch and their dog Joy in front of their Ocean Avenue home in Seaside Park. They are moving back today / Bob Bielk/STaff photographer

AT A GLANCE

The mayors for Brick, Toms River and Seaside Heights plan to submit a joint request to Gov. Chris Christie’s office to repopulate Toms River’s north beach areas, Brick and single-family homes of Seaside Heights on the same day, according to Toms River officials. No date was announced. The mayors are expected to sign the repopulation plan today .

Seaside Park, NJ-12/20/12-Bob Bielk/ Asbury Park Press Staff Photographer-Curfew for residents of Seaside Park has been lifted and residents are now allowed to move back into their homes after superstorm Sandy damaged the shore area. Larry Wilt, a full time resident of Red Bank, works on the first floor of his Seaside Park vacation home which was flooded by the storm.

Mike Yanik owns a bungalow in South Seaside Park.

SEASIDE PARK — Penny and John Welch had a minute Thursday for a tradition that became more of an afterthought in the wake of superstorm Sandy.

They took their dog Joy for a walk down on Ocean Avenue.

It was the Seaside Park couple’s first opportunity to resume the shore life that they loved before Sandy ripped through the region.

Seaside Park, South Seaside Park, and Pelican Island welcomed home residents on a permanent basis Thursday, marking the first night in nearly two months that residents could sleep in their own beds.

“It’s just wonderful. We love it here. We’ve always loved it here,” said Penny Welch, 68.

When a stranger shared the news this week in the post office, they hugged, Welch laughed.

Lavallette was the first borough to allow permanent residency after Sandy when it took down its barricades and checkpoints last week.

Pelican Island’s re-opening Thursday allowed the first Toms River residents displaced by the storm to go home. Toms River Mayor Thomas Kelaher said he hopes to have a date soon for when residents of the township’s northern beaches, including Normandy Beach and Chadwick Beach, can repopulate.

“We’re anxious to see everybody back as quickly as possible,” he said.

Residents of the township’s Ortley Beach section, hammered by the storm surge that primarily flooded its neighboring towns, will be last to move back and when isn’t exactly clear, the mayor said.

Before Thursday’s re-opening, utilities had to be available for residents to return and the governor had to give his approval for repopulation.

Berkeley residents put out by the storm could return to their homes and bungalows in South Seaside Park and the eastern side of Pelican Island.

“I think the utilities did a great job in a timely manner,” said Mike Yanik, 66, a Waretown resident who owns a bungalow with his wife, Barbara, in South Seaside Park’s Midway Beach.

Len Litowitz, 52, of Lancaster, Pa., came to his place at the Shore Villas, a neighborhood of bungalows in South Seaside Park. Thursday was the first time he had been back since the storm. He was there to prepare his summer home for the winter months.

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From what Litowitz heard about the area in the days after the storm and what he saw Thursday, he felt progress was significant. Come summer, he said: “I’ll be here, but if you look at my block, we’re some of the lucky folks.”

Only a handful of residents across Ocean County’s northern barrier island towns were out on the windy day.

Tom Blackley, 56, a Seaside Park resident since 2010, came home just to continue the clean up effort at his house on the corner of Sixth and Ocean avenues. There’s some utility work needed before he can move back, he said.

“I was surprised to hear they’d let you move in before Christmas,” he said. “It’s good to hear.”

Penny and John Welch spent the last two months moving from a nephew’s home in Pennington to different hotels.

“It’s very surreal to find yourself out of your home, to find out you have to leave,” John Welch, 68, said, recalling the evacuations.